Prior art of possible relevance includes the following U.S. Pat. No. 2,193,468 issued March 12, 1940 to Vickery and U.S. Pat. No. 3,345,792 issued Oct. 10, 1967 to Chandler.
Present day bowling lanes are conventionally built in an elevated position above the foundation of the building or the like in which they are housed. Usually the spacing is on the order of a foot or more.
The two most frequently cited reasons for such a construction are as follows. Firstly, the spacing is required where subway ball returns are used if the building foundation is to have a level floor, which is the most inexpensive to form. Secondly, in some quarters, it has been thought to be undesirable to mount the bowling lane directly on the building foundation, typically concrete, for the reason that it is believed that concrete is too rigid of a substrate to allow the bowling surface to yield under the impact of bowling balls. As a consequence, it is felt that the surface of the bowling lane deteriorates more rapidly because of the lack of yieldability.
In any event, a typical construction today, whether used as a support for natural wood lanes or so-called panelized lanes (sometimes referred to as synthetic lanes) involves the use of wooden components known as sleepers, stringers and levelers.
Sleepers are connected directly to the foundation, typically concrete, and extend generally transversely to the direction of elongation of the bowling lane on four foot centers. Each sleeper will typically be made up of a 2.times.4 topped by a 1.times.4 between which shims are located at appropriate intervals.
The stringers are typically 2.times.10's or 2.times.12's and extend along the direction of elongation of the bowling lane and are mounted on the sleepers. In a typical lane pair, eight stringers will extend approximately the length of the lane.
The stringers are in turn topped by the levelers and extend transversely to the direction of elongation of the lane at intervals that average approximately 18 inches. Shimming may also be provided between the stringers and the levelers. The components to form the bowling surface are then laid down upon the levelers. Frequently in all types of lanes, and universally in synthetic lanes of the panelized type, transverse members termed "strong backs", such as angle irons, are attached to the underside of the bowling surface components, placed on the stringers, generally to avoid dishing or crowning. This construction provides the requisite elevation for subway ball returns and at the same time, imparts a certain degree of yieldable support to the materials forming the bowling lane to assure a relatively low rate of deterioration of the bowling surface.
However, as the foregoing description implies, the principal components are made of wood. Wood is selected for economic reasons but at the same time provides problems of dimensional stability in the lanes. Specifically, under varying temperature and moisture conditions, the wood undergoes dimensional changes and this is most pronounced in the direction across the grain. As a consequence, the across the grain dimension of 10-12 inches in the stringers provides a considerable length over which across the grain dimensional changes due to temperature and moisture variations can occur with the consequence that the bowling surface supported thereby is not truly vertically dimensionally stable. The ultimate result is that scoring on such lanes may vary from time to time depending upon temperature and moisture conditions within the building housing the lane.
Also of some significance in such construction is the labor required to make the installation. The number of points requiring shimming is quite large--yet shimming is absolutely necessary to obtain a leveling of the bowling surface to a point within specifications of the organizations governing bowling.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the above problems.